Psychiatrist testifies Rosiello could form intent to murder wife

Wednesday

Apr 9, 2014 at 4:30 PM

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — A psychiatrist testified Wednesday that she believed Keith Rosiello had the mental capacity to form the requisite intent to commit murder on the night he allegedly beat his 44-year-old wife to death in the couple's home in Shrewsbury.

Called to the stand by Assistant District Attorney Terry J. McLaughlin as a rebuttal witness in Mr. Rosiello's Worcester Superior Court murder trial, Dr. Alison Fife said it was her opinion Mr. Rosiello was not suffering from a delusional disorder or cocaine dependency disorder at the time of the slaying.

Mr. Rosiello, 49, is on trial on a charge of first-degree murder in what prosecutors have said was the Feb. 3, 2010, beating death of Mrs. Rosiello in the family's former home at 32 Deerfield Road in Shrewsbury.

The testimony of Dr. Fife, who was hired by the prosecution to conduct a psychological evaluation of Mr. Rosiello, conflicted with that of John Daignault, a forensic psychologist who testified Tuesday as a defense witness.

Mr. Daignault said he believed Mr. Rosiello was suffering from both a delusional disorder and cocaine-dependency disorder on the night in question and substantially lacked the capacity to form the requisite intent for a first-degree murder conviction.

"My opinion is he had the capacity to form intent. He was not lacking in capacity based on mental disease or defect," Dr. Fife told the jury Wednesday.

An autopsy determined that Mrs. Rosiello died as a result of blunt force trauma with injuries that included 60 bruises, 45 scrapes, two cuts to her head, a fractured skull, multiple rib fractures and internal bleeding.

The couple's two children, now 16 and 10, testified earlier that they saw their father assault their mother by kicking and punching her and slamming her head against the floor on the night she died. Mr. Rosiello, who holds a master's degree in engineering from WPI, testified that he was attacked by his wife and had to defend himself by pushing her down several times.

He denied causing many of the injuries depicted in autopsy photographs shown to him by Mr. McLaughlin, and suggested Mrs. Rosiello suffered some of them when, he said, she slid face-first down one set of stairs and fell down another.

Mr. Daignault testified that Mr. Rosiello was mentally ill at the time of his wife's death and had the delusional belief she was cheating on him with other men and plotting to have him killed. The psychologist said Mr. Rosiello told him he was using up to $3,000 worth of crack cocaine a week at the time.

The couple had been to see a divorce lawyer shortly before Mrs. Rosiello's death.

Dr. Fife said she did not doubt that Mr. Rosiello was using crack cocaine in the weeks leading up to his wife's death, but questioned whether he was using as much as he stated. She said she found it "significant" that Mr. Rosiello did not seek medical attention for his wife on the night of Feb. 3, 2010, given the extent of her injuries.

"A man of his intellect and education, I find it significant that he could not have known how much trouble this woman was in," Dr. Fife told the jury. She also said she found some of Mr. Rosiello's accounts of his relationship with his wife lacking in credibility.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Michael C. Wilcox, Dr. Fife agreed that Mr. Rosiello was smoking "a great deal" of crack cocaine in early 2010, but said she distinguished between the abuse of the drug and a dependency upon it. She noted that Mr. Rosiello showed no signs of drug withdrawal while being held at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston after his arrest.

Dr. Fife also agreed with Mr. Wilcox's suggestion that people can be delusional, but still function in many areas of their daily lives without showing outward signs of their delusions. She also said, however, that a delusional disorder is a rare condition.